Local Motors 3D printing Hack A Thon was held on Saturday September 19th, the worlds first ever large scale 3D printing hack-a-thon. Where my conference table design was chosen to be used at Local Motors. It was a one day event with the challenge being to design a conference table and chairs, the winner in each category receiving a cash prize and their design being used at Local Motors. The time frame to design and then present to a panel of judges was approx 8 hrs.

I had been looking forward to participating in this challenge since Chad Stearns, the organizer of the event, told me about it. I have always enjoyed 3D printing and design so the opportunity to do both at Local Motors was great!  I used Auto Desk Fusion 360 for the entire design process. My inspiration for the conference table came from the industrial look and use of girders around the Chandler, Az. Local Motors facility where my brothers and I have been building our rear steering electric bike the Speederz Concept Bike. My design inspiration for the chairs comes from playing with Lego’s (the greatest toy ever invented) and the idea of building blocks. The chairs are modular and use a bracket and pin assembly to allow them to be assembled, modified and re-assembled. The bracket and pin system can be printed and used in conjunction with other designs as a way to assemble without the use of screws or other  hardware.

Local Motor’s is on the cutting edge of vehicle design and with their large format 3D printer and 5 Axes mill they can do anything! It was a great learning experience to be among some great designers like Matt Jackson and David Neal and an even bigger honor to have my conference table design chosen to be used at Local Motor’s! Many thanks to Chad Stearn’s, Matt Jackson, David Neal and all the other Local Motor’s staff who were there for putting together a great event! You can view all the other great designs at: https://localmotors.com/csellers/furniture-hackathon/activity/

Make On!

Received my certificate and prize.

One of the renderings I have done of the full conference table and Lego inspired modular chairs.

The Modular Design of the chairs makes them easily assembled or disassembled and changed. The bracket system can be used in other applications as well.

The Pin and Bracket assembly system can be seen here.

Side profile in Auto Desk Fusion 360 software.

My Presentation to the judges.

The Hack A Thon participants.

Updated: recently Local Motors asked us to come in and watch the first attempt at 3D printing my winning conference table design. We had a great time going in to see the print take shape.